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Apply for the R&D Tax Incentive
R&DTI customer portal
To register activities for the R&DTI you must submit an application via the R&DTI customer portal. The portal is the R&DTI's secure platform for making and managing applications.
How to log in to the customer portal
To log in to the customer portal, you must be authorised. How to do this depends on your relationship to the applicant company.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources (the department) provides guidance for each of the following:
Pre-application checklist
Before you start drafting your application for the R&DTI, make sure you have everything in order with our pre-application checklist.
You must be an eligible R&D entity to apply for the R&DTI.
You must have conducted eligible R&D activities to apply for the R&DTI.
An overseas finding is required before you can claim the expenditure for activities conducted outside Australia.
You can still apply for the R&DTI if your eligible expenditure is less than $20,000, but only if you used a research service provider to perform your R&D activities or if you contributed to the Cooperative Research Centres Program.
You are required to sign a declaration that you kept records while your R&D activities were conducted and that the records can be produced when asked.
The deadline to apply for the R&DTI is 10 months after the end of your company's income year. If your application is late, have you been granted an extension of time?
The Australian Taxation Office prepares taxpayer alerts to summarise their concerns about higher risk tax arrangements or issues. Visit their Helping get your R&D claims right page for taxpayer alerts specific to the R&DTI.
If you are conducting activities involving clinical trials, the Industry Research and Development (Clinical Trials) Determination 2022 could simplify your application for the R&DTI. For more information on this determination, refer to the Biotechnology sector guide.
The department’s ‘Registration – application form questions’ guidance document contains advice on applying this determination when registering activities for the R&DTI.
Application guidance
The department provides the following guidance to help you understand the application questions:
In your application for the R&DTI, you may group different activities into a single R&D activity. However, you should consider whether this helps to accurately describe your activities and how they meet the program’s eligibility requirements.
Core and supporting R&D activities have different requirements under the R&DTI and should not be grouped together in your R&DTI application.
Grouping activities into a single core R&D activity
You can group activities into a single core R&D activity if they are all conducted to resolve the same technical uncertainty. Activities that address different technical uncertainties should not be grouped.
When grouping activities, your application should clearly demonstrate that all elements of the systematic progression of work have been followed.
Your application should:
- explain why the activities have been grouped
- describe the technical uncertainty the grouped activities are addressing
- outline each step of the systematic progression of work.
Examples of activities that may be grouped include:
- testing a prototype medical device on different patient groups as part of an experiment to evaluate its effectiveness in diagnosing multiple disease stages
- conducting multiple tests to assess the effectiveness of a new chemical mixture in extracting different contaminants from soil
- performing iterative load and stress tests as part of an experiment during software development to resolve uncertainty about whether the proposed architecture can scale to handle increased data volume.
Grouping similar supporting R&D activities
Supporting R&D activities are generally best described separately. However, you may group similar supporting R&D activities if they are directly related to the same core R&D activity.
If you group supporting R&D activities, your application should clearly explain how each grouped supporting activity is directly related to the relevant core R&D activity.
Supporting R&D activities cannot be grouped if they are:
- excluded from being a core R&D activity, or
- involved in producing goods or services.
Submit your application through the customer portal
Apply for the R&DTIFor guidance on managing applications in the customer portal, see the R&DTI customer portal help and support page.
Application processing timeframes
The department strives to process applications as quickly and efficiently as possible whilst maintaining the integrity of the R&DTI program.
Processing timeframes are detailed in the R&DTI program charter. The department’s performance measure is that 95% of applications for the R&DTI are processed within:
- 40 business days for first-time applicants
- 20 business days for applications submitted within 6 months after the end of the income period
- 80 business days for applications submitted from 6 to 10 months after the end of the income period.
Several factors may impact the time it takes to register your application, such as:
- your application provides limited detail
- your application describes an activity which may be excluded
- we have previously provided guidance through an engagement meeting and/or correspondence
- we have identified other risks or eligibility concerns.
You can check the progress of your application through the R&DTI customer portal.
Confirmation of registration does not mean your activities are eligible for the R&DTI. The R&DTI is a self-assessment program – you are responsible for determining the eligibility of your activities. The department provides support for self-assessing eligibility.